Punjab women lead the way in arming themselves

[Sakobav]

This article is from tribune and for a change gives realistic view of licenses - saw a name in the article of a person I know and he can also attest to folks engaging Terrorists in Majha region of Punjab for nights together. Yes few were issues SLRs and AKs ( mostly were communist leaders )
Prabhjot Singh is the reporter
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20120902/main2.htm

Chandigarh, September 1
Septuagenarian Amrik Kaur of Amarkot, a recipient of the Shaurya Chakra, a top civilian gallantry award, wants arms licences for both her daughters-in-law to carry forward the family tradition of keeping its women armed.

Amrik Kaur — once known as the “lioness of the border areas” — used to engage militants in night-long encounters during the peak of militancy in Punjab. Though she lost her husband Shahbeg Singh and domestic help Mukhtyar Singh in one of such encounters, she refused to give up her fight against anti-national and anti-social elements. In recognition of her brave fight against terrorism, she was awarded the Shaurya Chakra in 1995.

“I am passing through the most difficult and painful phase of my life right now. Besides threats from those whom I fought during militancy, I lost both my sons in recent years. But this has not diminished my resolve to continue my fight. The threats never ceased; so I am always prepared to defend my family and myself,” she says to reiterate her claim for issuance of arms licences to both her daughters-in-law. Besides three personal weapons in her name, Amrik Kaur has been provided two security guards by the Punjab Police. Amrik Kaur has been a torch-bearer of those Punjabi women who refuse to be overawed by droves of gun-wielding militants, dacoits, robbers or spoiled brats of big-wigs. Investigations reveal that the number of women seeking arms licences has seen a phenomenal rise. There are more women in rural, remote and border areas who not only have arms licences, but also got firearms endorsed on them — generally small personal weapons such as pistols and revolvers — to put the state ahead of others.

Among those recently granted arms licences is the widow of a young Jalandhar businessman and wives of at least five police officers in Ludhiana. Those connected with political families and major business families are also high on the list of arms licencees.

While in urban areas the trend of possessing arms is restricted to young educated entrepreneurs, professionals such as doctors, engineers and businesswomen, especially jewellers and sportswomen, the group in rural areas includes land owners and others from families where keeping firearms is a tradition.

Many women have more than one weapon to their name. In Ludhiana, for instance, the wife of a businessman has three weapons. There are at least three women in Jalandhar city who have two weapons each. Besides a .32 bore revolver or pistol, the weapon of choice is the 12 bore double barrel gun.

Information obtained under the Right to Information Act reveals that there are 31,300 women in Punjab with arms licences and almost all of them have procured weapons. Cases of women using a firearm in self-defence or retaliation are hardly reported.

Recalls Lok Nath Angara, Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Jalandhar Range, “A woman named Nindro had opened fire in defence of a police party after militants fired at me. Other than these two cases, I do not remember any other incident in which women used their weapons.”

The most recent case of women opening fire in public was reported from Ludhiana’s posh Sarabha Nagar locality when a group of young women, after a spat with young men, returned in a SUV and fired in the air to send a message that they would not be booed.

“Licenced weapons are rarely used in crimes. In fact, it is an asset in case the licence is given to a rightful person. It is enshrined in police rules and those with licenced weapons are at times called upon to assist the state in maintenance of law and order, besides being given the task of securing vital security installations and performing ‘theekri pehra’ during emergencies,” adds Lok Nath Angra.

“Keeping a weapon for self defence at home is more in consonance with the Punjabi feudal tradition. Interestingly, 90% of these weapons are seldom put to use. Their use is limited to firing in the air on joyous occasions,” says MF Farooqui, DIG, Ludhiana Range.

“I recently granted an arms licence to a young widow to facilitate the transfer of her deceased husband’s double barrel gun to her,” says Surjit Singh Grewal, Senior Superintendent of Police, Moga.

Ishwar Singh, Commissioner of Police, Ludhiana, says nothing unusual has come to his notice while granting arms licences to women.

“Of the 1,601 new licences granted in Ludhiana since introduction of the commissionerate system, only 29 have gone to women,” he says, holding that only a small percentage of self-employed or entrepreneur women are among the successful applicants. Otherwise, these licences have generally been passed down as family heirlooms.

His views are corroborated by Navjot Mahal, ADCP of Jalandhar, who says only 16 women have been issued fresh arms licences since introduction of the Commissionerate System of policing in the city.

Yurinder Singh Hyer, SSP, Jalandhar (Rural), says requests for arms licences from women are rare.

The ban imposed by the Union Government on import of small and personal weapons and the long wait for getting revolvers and pistols manufactured by ordnance factories in the country have been no deterrent for those getting new licences.

Women from affluent families still prefer imported weapons, says an arms dealer of Ludhiana, holding that “though no new weapon has been allowed to be imported since 1984, some earlier imported weapons were now being disposed off.

(With inputs from Varinder Singh and Mohit Khanna)

[Hammerhead]

“Licenced weapons are rarely used in crimes. In fact, it is an asset in case the licence is given to a rightful person. It is enshrined in police rules and those with licenced weapons are at times called upon to assist the state in maintenance of law and order

“though no new weapon has been allowed to be imported since 1984, some earlier imported weapons were now being disposed off.

Not surprised at all that it's Gov't induced black market and every one is happily washing hands in this - Haji

[goodboy_mentor]

It is enshrined in police rules and those with licenced weapons are at times called upon to assist the state in maintenance of law and order, besides being given the task of securing vital security installations and performing ‘theekri pehra’ during emergencies,

Can anyone please give some details of these police rules, I would like to read them. I am aware of The Punjab Village and Small towns Patrol Act, 1918.

Similar artilce was also published in Tehelka:-

The Bang Bang Club

31,000 women in Punjab have a licence to own guns. Selfdefence is only part of the story. What explains their deep need to be armed and ready?

Photos and Story by Garima Jain

SWAGGERING YOUNG men shooting into the sky at weddings is part of the popular culture in rural and small-town Punjab. Boys, you might scoff, and their toys. Until a woman approaching 60 tells you she loves using beer bottles as target practice. Until an apparently demure schoolteacher tells you she takes her pistol to class. Until a succession of women — doctors, writers, professionals, the wives of politicians, property dealers and landed gentry — confess not only to owning guns but delighting in their power.

Gaurmail Kaur, 41, teaches in a high school in Faridkot and packs her pistol in her handbag as automatically, as inevitably as any textbook. “It is,” she tells me, “for my protection. Of course, the kids ask questions: can they see it? Can I show them how to fire it? Where do I keep it when I sleep? But the gun stays locked in the cupboard at school.” Her colleagues tease her, joking that she is “a single woman leading the life of a man”. Punjabi masculinity, particularly around the state’s fecund farmlands, seems synonymous with gun ownership.

Nenu Sekhu runs a bridal boutique in Chandigarh and is a former national-level shooter. “I don’t carry a weapon,” she says, “and only shoot occasionally.” She stopped practising after her marriage, “People might think I wear the pants.” But gun ownership in Punjab is no longer confined to men. A recently issued Right to Information report reveals that close to 31,000 women in the state have licences for firearms. If many women are proxies for husbands, fathers and brothers, many too, like Gaurmail, are unwilling to rely on absent men and an absent State for protection.

“Most women I know,” says Gaurmail, “carry guns and many, like me, are schoolteachers. In Punjab, even children learn to shoot.” She fires shots into the air from her terrace every couple of months, “just to let people know I have a gun.” When an intruder actually broke into her house, Gaurmail froze, unable instinctively to shoot at another human being. Luckily, the intruder fled when she turned on the lights. If Gaurmail can’t bring herself to use her gun, she remains exhilarated to simply own one. “I love my 9mm pistol,” she admits unabashedly, “I am in love with my gun.”

It is a feeling echoed by other women I spoke to, like Aman K Singh, 32, whose husband gave her a 12-bore shotgun on their wedding day. For Aman, who lives in Chandigarh, a “good Sardar is someone with a gun and a jeep”. She says her son “was three years old when he shot his first gun,” and that she herself learned by practising on a private shooting range in her home. Despite her apparent pride in her ability to handle guns (she carries one even when she visits her son at his boarding school), Aman maintains that she “hates violence and guns enhance violence”. She deplores the “growing crime” in Punjab but it is hard to tell whether she connects her perception of increased criminality with increased gun ownership. Aman tells me, “People who are short-tempered should not carry guns.” She undercuts this by admitting that owning a gun “changes your mentality”, potentially making even the placid and patient dangerous.

Ameet Dhillon, 59, has a similarly conflicted relationship with her guns. She was eight years old “when my dad put a gun in my hand and taught me how to shoot”. Her fondest childhood reminiscences are of “shikars outside Chandigarh, shooting partridges, nilgai and wild boar”. “I know I am a good shot,” she says, “and I am still blood-thirsty.” Her exaggerated relish in her prowess is tempered by her awareness of age. “My hands and neck have begun to tremble,” she says, “I feel less confident with my shooting.” Still, she feels compelled to “carry a gun for security”.

The contradictions are starker when Ameet tells a horrifying story of her ageing husband slipping gun in hand, chasing after what he thought was an intruder: “The gun went off. My daughter was in the room but luckily the bullet hit the door.” To outsiders, it may appear plain that families like the Dhillons put themselves in more danger by owning guns than not, that accidents are arguably more likely to lead to fatal injury than intruders. But these dangers pale before the visceral appeal of guns, their status in the community.

Aman Singh’s husband, a huge man in sunglasses and gold chains draped over a white kurta, patrols their farm with armed bodyguards, gunfire intermittently rattling the air. Their need for security (part of their property is disputed) is inextricable, from the honour that guns confer. An armed bodyguard, at Rs 15,000 a month, is expensive and it’s clear that for Aman and her husband, the dozen rifles piled on a charpayi to impress a visiting journalist is proof of their material success.

A RICH Patiala farmer’s wife, Simran (name changed), 42, spoke at length about the prestige of owning weapons with a singular, noble gloss: “Guns,” she argues, “are part of Sikh culture. We have a martial tradition. Punjab has always been the frontier state for invaders from the Northwest. During World War I, Sikhs were recruited by the British army and were taught to fire guns.” She is proud to be part of such a tradition and tells me that guns “will be wedding gifts to my daughters and I’ll teach them to shoot”.

Renee Singh, 49, believes hunting is part of the Sikh aristocrat’s birthright. She, like Ameet Dhillon, speaks fondly of shikars and particularly her mother’s skill at shooting game. Renee is a genuine eccentric — a Sufi poet who attends literary festivals, a parenting consultant and the host of a local television show. At the farm, though, she slips easily into her role of ‘Chhote Sahib’ and tells me she feels “naked without my gun”. For women like Renee, guns appeal to a deeper impulse: a self-image of hardy self-reliance.

Of course, the statewide violence of the 1970s and ’80s lingers in the psychology of gun use in Punjab. Ironically, families used to deposit their guns at the police station so when ‘terrorists’ raided their homes for weapons they could show receipts to prove they had none. An echo of this remains today, when lakhs of guns are deposited with the police to minimise violence during elections. Still, while history explains aspects of Punjabi gun culture, it misses the almost familial attachment people have to their guns. A school principal in her 60s, Gurmeet (name changed), told me that owning a gun was an investment, like a piece of jewellery. “I can’t even use mine,” she says, “but I inherited it from my mother.”

In my time in Punjab, I found guns gave the women who owned them a high, a giddy liberation. I got a sense of some of that freedom on my very first evening in Punjab, when Ameet invited me to take a few shots in the air from her roof. On my last evening in Faridkot, that thrill was underscored. I accompanied Gaurmail Kaur, the schoolteacher, riding around town on an Activa scooter with a friend. The two women shopped, ate chaat, laughed. She ignored the clumps of men gathered on various street corners. “No one can do or say a thing to us,” Gaurmail said, “we have guns.”

Garima Jain is a Photo Correspondent with Tehelka.
[email protected]

Source http://www.tehelka.com/story_main53.asp ... ngBang.asp

[BowMan]

Not surprising considering how many Punjabi singers have dedicated songs to the Love of Dunaali.

"jihdey heth gohra modey te donali nee, pag bandah JEEUNEY MORH wali nee"

[Sakobav]

Bowman

That song was meant for yester years no more pugs back home

[Bespoke]

I know couple of women in Tehelka article and I must say that they are ABSOLUTELY repulsive personalities! I almost broke my screen when i saw what they have written....

[captrakshitsharma]

Unfortunately most gun owners that get interviewed get so carried away and never use common sense. They make gun owners look bad and give a picture that they are not clear about reasons for their owning guns...the media preys and feasts on this...

[Baljit]

Guy's owning a guns is a part of our culture and martial tradition. i am the forth generasion in my family who own the guns also my wife and now my both son's also in the guns as well.i start shooting when i am only 12 years old but i teach my both son's how to shoot the gun when they are only 7 years old.

Proud to be a SIKH


Baljit

[captrakshitsharma]

Baljit I am totally with you...I am Also a 4th generation gun owner in fact I even have guns from that generation. We must follow tradition . One must teach the young about guns and more importantly the responsibility that comes with owning guns. I drive the point to the ones younger to me in the words they best relate. On being questioned about who should be allowed to own a gun and responsibilities and repercussions of gun possession and usage/misuse I told a college going cousin of mine (who is basically a fence sitter ) in the very words of spiderman " With great Power comes Great Responsibility". This one sentence made so much of sense to him that nothing else could have driven the point home better.
The point behind this is that in today's generally anti gun sentiment world it is a sad fact that we all have to justify reason for gun ownership . What I and some others mean is that when gun owners explain the reason for gun ownership we must be careful as to what we say. Also one must understand the psychology of the person you are talking to and raise points and counter arguments by understanding what words and issues will impact them . This is especially true when talking to media. We need to be careful and present a good image of the lawful licensed gun owner and also present facts that justify the need to own guns and demonstrate safe gun practices. One has to address the issue with a little care and we owe it to ourself and the pro gun community.

[BowMan]

Bowman

That song was meant for yester years no more pugs back home

Pugs maybe yes but dunaali also?